Better Late than Never On a Taiwan Journal Entry

Well this is a post long over do

For when this should have been written (11/6) I had made it to my second to last week, it’s getting to be very bittersweet.

My language partner sure thinks so, our meeting for dinner in Ximen西门町 on Monday was the most rowdy we had in a while. I had invited several of my friends to come join us at a sushi bar I found online. The waitress there was funnily not having any of our interaction, and only talked to my language partner. Sometimes it was a bit annoying to be ignored like that, but what can you do. When you are so obviously a foreigner, you get treated like nothing at times. And this goes for any place you visit, not just Taiwan.

Overall though people have been open to conversation, one should also consider that this is a rather large city, Taipei I mean. In any large city in the United States foreigners would be treated just the same. Maybe that’s what all the hustle and bustle does to you. Be optimistic in every part of your life, I say, you’ll find it treats you much better.

But enough of that— I had completely forgotten to talk about pride in Taiwan! The parade happened back on Halloween weekend, but because it was raining so much, I didn’t get a chance to go. I did however get to an exhibit on LGBTQ+ History in Taiwan. It’s eye-opening to see the difference and similarities between the fight for rights in the US and Taiwan. Though it was the first Asian country to legalize same sex marriage, couples who want a child still to struggle though the traditional view that only men and women couples can have a child. Adoption is hard and requires couples to often divorce then remarry to adopt.

As for how this week went, I keep showing up to Japanese dance club meetings when there aren’t any. I hate having to fight my way off the 6pm bus just to show up to nothing. It is my fault, though, I misread the schedule.

Other than that, I’ve been gathering up sources for my final internship paper. I’m not terribly excited to write it— who likes writing essays. But I am interested in the topic. It will be on bilingualism in Taiwan. Speaking of which, did you know that Taiwan had decided to become bilingual by 2030 back in 2018? These English and Mandarin sings aren’t just for show, they are government mandated!

I talked to my language partner about this, the plan is, well, not supported all around. I understand that Taiwan is full of native and outsider languages. Plus, more of the population speaks Japanese as a second language than English. At least to me, language learning should be a passion, you need solid reasoning to help you pursue it, otherwise you’ll be spending a lot of brain power on something that you’ll find no joy in.

Oh, like I said this is a topic that could go on and on. I’ll end it here! 再见!!